Obama to quit?

According to the newsobserver.com, "how successful Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is at quitting smoking could depend on why he does it in the first place."

The news source is absolutely right. He can't do it for anybody else (including the voters). He has to do it for himself. And he has to be very careful about stress becoming an excuse to go back to smoking.

It's said that Obama only smokes 4 or 5 cigarettes a day... don't think that makes it easier. It doesn't.

According to lifelong smoker Linda Jones, "All he has to do is put his mind to it." "It can be done," Jones said Monday afternoon on a smoke break from her job as an administrative assistant with the Wisconsin state Department of Public Instruction. "Once you make up your mind, just go cold turkey," said Jones, who has tried to quit twice.

Is she kidding? There she is still smoking and saying "just go cold turkey." And she's TRIED to quit TWICE. Hah!

I don't know if Obama should have brought smoking up at all but maybe he's being asked questions by reporters. I don't know.

If he's not successful quitting, he'll have to "sneak" cigarettes, putting himself in a worse situation vis-a-vis the voters and the press.

Here's some interesting info:

Dwight D. Eisenhower reportedly quit his four-pack-a-day habit before being elected in 1952. Lyndon Johnson likewise gave up smoking before becoming John F. Kennedy's vice presidential running mate prior to the 1960 election. Richard Nixon was smoke-free by the time he finally landed the White House in 1968. And though Ronald Reagan hawked Chesterfield Kings during his acting days in the 1940s, his vice-of-choice by the time he was elected in 1980 was jelly beans.

People may not have thought twice about FDR puffing away, but news of Obama lighting up -- well, you'd have thought he'd admitted to pedophilia. (In fact, according to research at Northwestern University, pedophilia, obesity and smoking are seen as three socially sanctioned reasons for ostracism.) (newsobserver.com)